ICU Research: Non-residents' portfolio rises to UAH9.3bn

Last week, non-residents purchased about UAH3.5bn of new bonds, increasing their portfolio to UAH9.33bn, including UAH9.24bn of local currency bonds at various maturities from this year to the beginning of 2019 through 2022.

Per NBU and Bloomberg data, some funds were invested in bonds through CLN issued by Citigroup, with about UAH1.0bn of CLN in investments last week. New CLN were issued maturing in April and July 2018, January 2019 and October 2022.

Investment implications: A stronger hryvnia and key policy rate hike increased the attractiveness of local currency bonds, and this trend could continue. The non-residents' share of total bonds outstanding rose to 1.25%, and their rising demand could enable the MoF to reject higher bids from local investors and still attract high proceeds. Today, the MoF will offer six bonds with maturities from 2.5 months to three years, and non-residents' demand could be significant.